


This Trial Court has Students in It (Reload)

by TheDarkFlygon



Series: Naeggnog Live Fics [3]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Alternate Case, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon compliant (kinda), Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, alternate storyline
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 09:34:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11272776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarkFlygon/pseuds/TheDarkFlygon
Summary: A fourth murder occured at this prison of a school.It seems like a badly put-together fake suicide.But, as usual, the truth goes deeper than that.





	1. Préambule - Investigation

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so, this fic is basically "wat is courage" the story. It's the second time I write it... And the 2nd time I post this version  
> I was just completely ashamed of one part so I felt like deleting and reposting everything cuz that's how I am lmao  
> And for those who weren't there for the 2nd edition, the plot has changed! 
> 
> Also I wanted to thank RandomRex6's Three Point Shot story cuz it's the main inspiration for this  
> (also Detective Conan lmao)

“You think Gonta-kun found Chabashira-san?” asked Kaede to her fitness club peers as soon as they had finished their jog.

It had been a while since he had went into Shinguji's lab, all because he saw a note on her own lab's door telling people that she was going there. They hadn't seen either of them yet, and it was already the latter half of the afternoon. This wasn’t right in the slightest.

 

A rushing, panicked Gonta ran to them, his face livid, confirming that something clearly was wrong. As to what... It would be revealed pretty quickly.

“Gonta, what's wrong?” asked Momota as soon as the entomologist was in front of them. “You look like you just saw a ghost!”

“G-Gonta saw... He saw that Chabashira-san was dead!!” yelled as a response the entomologist.

“Dead?!” screamed Kaede, interrupting her towel neck-rubbing.

 

The four of them rushed to the folklorist's lab, with still a tiny little bit of hope that Gonta just got scared and thought someone asleep was dead. Ah, wishful thinking hadn’t left their side yet. But didn’t they know it was useless to wish for anything good in this hell of a place?

Indeed, as soon as they had opened the doors wide, the truth faced them once again. Chabashira was dead, her corpse hanging, slowly swinging from a staircase, suspended in the air by a noose around her neck.

 

“Pin pom pooooooon! A body has been discovered! Investigation is open! A class trial is going to happen soon!” echoed Monokuma’s high-pitched voice through the school.

It was the fourth time too much...

 

Soon enough, everyone had rushed to them, including Shinguji.

“Chabashira-san?!” cried Kiibo as he rushed to Kaede and company.

“Oh dear, someone else is dead!” reacted Ouma nonchalantly. “Wasn’t expecting that with the new Monokuma motive and all.”

“What a tragedy,” added Shinguji.

“Not again...” just whispered Saihara.

 

The pianist blinked when she saw him with... His cap on. He had stopped wearing it after the first trial, making her really surprised to see him wearing it once again for some reason she didn't know of. It was suspicious, really suspicious.

“Hoi, Saihara-chan! Whatcha hidin' under your cap? Bad hair day?”

The detective laughed it off.

“Y-yeah, it was... It was pretty bad this morning...”

“Guys!” shouted the leader.

 

Everyone turned towards the pink-wearing girl, who then took a deep breath and announced the tragic news to everyone.

“Chabashira-san is dead. You... You know the drill by now... Let's take her down...” she said, as everyone more or less agreed to her statement.

 

Momota and Harukawa proceeded to take the unfortunate corpse of their classmate down, a heavily saddened look on their face. When was this nightmarish ride ending? Who knew! Someone killed someone again.

Wait, why did it have to be a murder? Chabashira may had hung herself... But she had this gut feeling that this was a murder, and a premeditated one of that.

“Momota-kun, Harukawa-san, can you gather testimonies and alibies? I'm going to investigate the corpse with Saihara-kun.” ordered the pianist.

“Sure!” the astronaut replied as they both went to the other students.

 

The detective came to her, his eyes already focusing on the corpse on the ground.

“Hello, Saihara-kun” she said, trying to remind him they hadn't seen him at club activities.

“Oh, huh, hi Akamatsu-san...”

He was already kneeling before the corpse and she had to follow.

 

“I don't think Chabashira-san killed herself, Akamatsu-san.”

“I feel the same way too… What makes you think so?”

“There was nothing for her to stand on in the room...”

Kaede’s eyes looked around the room, mostly near where Chabashira’s corpse was found. A small something ticked inside of her as Saihara’s remark became clear as day.

“You're right! Not even a stool!”

 

He took a long look at her face as Gonta approached them, sniffing around him.

“Is something wrong, Gonta-kun?” she asked to the long-haired boy.

“Gonta smells almond around here...”

An illuminated look drew itself on the boy in black's face.

“Almond? Does it smell like bitter almond, Gonta-kun?” asked Saihara, now looking up at their classmate.

Gonta sniffed again, a bit surprised by this question.

“It is a bit bitter!” he replied.

 

Kaede was confused. Why was it important it smell like bitter almond of everything?

“Is it a major clue?” she questioned him.

“It is!” he almost cheerfully replied.

He then softly turned the corpse on the front, exposing its back.

 

A careful pair of eyes inspected in great detail the neck of the victim.

“Akamatsu-san, look.”

 

His finger was pointing to some kind of... Mole? It was hard to tell.

“It's just a mole, no?” she asked, not seeing the point.

“It looks more like a hole, don't you think?”

“A... Hole?”

It wasn't any clearer. It was even getting more confusing. Why was a hole important? What was the use of such a small cavity anyway?

 

“Yes, I would say the killer pierced her skin with a thin object to poison her...”

“Poison?!” she screamed in response.

“Cyanide gives purple lips and smells like bitter almond.... I'm pretty sure Chabashira-san has been poisoned” calmly explained Saihara, a hand on the bill of his hat as if it helped him to think.

 

She was dumbfounded. Poison? Where did someone get poison from? It had to come from someone’s laboratory, or they would have found some in a place like the infirmary (who knew with a psychopathic stuffed bear as the “headmaster”). The question was from whose lab it came from.

Kaede’s was nowhere near the answer, of course dared she think to herself. It couldn’t be Chabashira’s, nor Yumeno’s, nor Gonta’s, nor Momota’s… It left Shinguji’s lab, where she currently was, Amami’s lab she still didn’t know about and Saihara’s lab, which hadn’t been discovered yet. She ruled out the last one as “undiscovered so can’t be the source of the poison”.

 

Another familiar jingle then played.

“Pim pam poooooom! The class trial is about to start!! Everyone, gather to the court door!! I will not tolerate any late arrival or absence!!”

Great. Just great. She felt like she hadn’t had the time to grasp everything wrong with this murder when Monokuma, out of impatience, rang the Class Trial alert.

 

They all went to the trial court. Nobody ever wanted to be back there, really. Everybody was suspicious of each other. She knew Momota and Harukawa didn't do it. She knew Gonta didn't do it.

But the others?

Ouma, Kiibo, Shinguji, she didn't know about their whereabouts during the murder.

And... She didn't know Saihara's either? That thought felt beyond weird to her. Saihara was the first one to have something making him innocent by default. It was such an oddity, she could barely believe it herself.

 

She didn't want to suspect him of everyone. She trusted him. But he did seem like he guessed the murder method really fast... And he lacked an alibi. He had resurfaced just when the body discovery jingle played. Before that, nobody had seen him since… The day before?

Hell, he hadn’t even been there for breakfast! What in the world was he doing?

 

Kaede took a deep breath as they stepped inside the elevator. This was going to be a tough case of a simili-suicide of yet innocent another. Was Chabashira really strangled and hung to make it look like she had ended her own days? Or had the killer poisoned her, just like Saihara had told her?

In any case, she had to be ready for a trial of hope against despair, a trial of truth versus lies… A trial of life against death.

 


	2. Death Smells like Almonds

When they entered the room, Kaede was still convincing herself that Saihara couldn't be the murderer. Everyone took their spot, one of these stupidly insulting portraits replacing Angie, who had been the latest one to get executed because of the murder of Toujou and Iruma, and Chabashira in their podiums.

Fucking monochromatic bear. She would make him pay for this new death and the one that would obligatorily come afterwards.

 

“Here is a basic explanation of the class trials...”

Was anyone even listening anymore? It was already the fourth time they were hearing this goddamm speech. Everybody knew by heart what it was. Ouma was even mocking it by imitating Monokuma as the bear spoke.

 

As soon as the pointless explanations were done, Kaede took the floor as the self-proclaimed leader.

“So, let's recapitulate everything we know about the murder before we start accusing anyone.”

She turned to the detective.

“Saihara-kun, can you read us the Monokuma File please?”

“Sure.”

 

He took his student ID in his hands and opened the file to read it.

“The victim is Tenko Chabashira. The corpse was found in Korekiyo Shinguji's lab, hanging from the staircase to the second floor. The victim died of suffocation around 2PM.”

 

“So... Tenko hung herself, right?” said Momota.

“It seems like she did, what a pity” added Shinguji.

“I'm doubting it, why would she do so in someone's lab of all places?” questioned Harukawa.

“Moreover, there were nothing she could have stood on when hanging herself” completed Saihara.

“The Monokuma File said she died from suffocation though” insisted Shinguji.

“Yeah, it doesn't explain that!” added Ouma.

“No, that's wrong!” replied Saihara, enforcing his cap on his head.

“I'm curious as to how you'll explain it, Saihara-chan!”

 

Kiibo seemed to know something.

“Have you found something, Kiibo-kun?” asked Gonta.

“According to the database”, replied the robot, “some poisons cause death by cutting nerve connections. It leads to suffocation.”

“That would explain the purple lips Chabashira-san's corpse had then” calmly continued Harukawa.

“So... Tenko didn't die from being hung but from poisoning?” asked Momota.

“Nobody mentioned poison before though!” said Ouma. “That's suspicious!”

“Ouma is right,” said Shinguji, “nobody had mentioned anything about poison before.”

“What makes you think it's poisoning? And, when did you know the corpse had purple lips, Harumaki?!"

“I took a look at Chabashira's corpse before, Momota.”

“Chabashira-san's corpse had purple lips?” asked the entomologist.

“It did, Gonta-kun. This is why Saihara-kun and I thought that she got poisoned” replied Kaede.

“Doing things alone together, huh? Ya did something dirty next to the corpse, Akamatsu-chan?”

“Ouma-kun! This is a class trial!!” she screamed out of embarrassment.

“Anyway, do you have any more clues as to why Chabashira could have been poisoned?” asked Harukawa.

“We found a weird small hole on the back of her neck...” explained Saihara, but he seemed to have lost his words halfway through.

“Saihara-kun said that it could have been a thin object, like a syringe or a needle” finished Kaede, looking at her friend.

This sudden loss of words was suspicious.

 

“But where could someone have found a syringe?” asked Momota.

“The nurse's office may had those, but it would have been easier to inject it with a needle” replied the detective.

"Why would it have been easier to do it with a needle?" questioned Kiibo.

 

Kaede focused, picturing herself on a road riding this now-familiar bright pink car. Picking persons as answers, she was trying to come up with a theory as to why a needle would have been the better pick. She thought about the difficulty of getting rid of a syringe compared to a needle, who could be excused for more reasons more easily.

It then came to her mind that needles were far easier to find anyway, as nobody was really sure where to find syringes.

The more and more she thought about it, the clearer it became that it was handier for another reason: it needed less poison to be effective. A syringe could keep some in, requiring a higher dose.

 

She slammed her hands on the stand.

“It must have been a needle so the culprit could have disposed of it easily, not use too much poison and to justify having one on him more easily.”

“How does a needle make it so you do not use too much poison?” asked Kiibo.

“It's because there is a risk that really small quantities of liquid don't make it to the end of the syringe... A thing a needle can solve by being shoved straight into someone's skin” explained Saihara.

He sounded weird today. Maybe he was just a bit tenser than usual...

 

“So, the murder weapon must be a needle, right?” confirmed Momota.

“We still have to determine what poison was used” said Harukawa.

“The poison was deadly enough to kill her almost instantly” stated Saihara as he adjusted the bill of his hat closer to his eyes.

“What makes you say that, Saihara-chan?” questioned the dictator.

“There was a noticeable lack of blood around Chabashira-san's mouth. If it was a poison that would act in more than a few seconds, the body would have reacted and she would have vomited blood.”

“Maybe the blood was swept away by the culprit” responded Shinguji.

 

Kaede remembered something out of the blue as soon as the topic of poison type came up.

“Wait, didn't you smell a suspicious scent of almond around the corpse, Gonta-kun?” asked the pianist.

“Ah, Akamatsu-san is right! Chabashira-san smelled like almond.” replied the entomologist.

“Almond?” said the astronaut, raising an eyebrow. “Why would the smell of almond do jack shit with this murder?”

“There is almond-flavoured tea at the cafeteria. Tojo-san would sometimes prepare some for breakfast” responded Shinguji.

“It didn't smell like the almond tea! It smelled like... It's hard to describe, but the smell was more bitter than usual...” added Gonta, thinking.

“Bitter almond?” said Harukawa, as if she was surprised.

“A scent of bitter almond is...” started but didn't finish Saihara.

“A scent of bitter almond can be linked to cyanide” finished Kaede, once again looking at him.

“What is it, Saihara-chan? You don't seem really talkative today! It's not usual from you to let your girlfriend do all the work for you!”

“Akamatsu-san isn't my girlfriend...”

“Hey you shitheads”, screamed Monokuma, “that place ain't to have pointless love chatter! Ya can talk about it later, that is, if one of ya isn't the culprit!”

 

“So... Chabashira-san has been poisoned around 3PM with a needle covered in cyanide, sure. But who did it?” asked Harukawa.

“We have to review everyone's alibis to see who could have committed it” decided Kaede.

“Harumaki, Kaede and I have an alibi! We were together training outside from one to the moment Gonta discovered the corpse!” started Momota.

“Gokuhara went to get us when he found Chabashira's corpse” added Harukawa.

“What's your alibi, Gonta-chan?” asked Ouma.

“Gonta was taking care of his bug friends before he went to check up on Chabashira-san. She had left a note saying she was at Shinguji's lab, so he went there... And then Gonta discovered she was dead!” replied the entomologist.

“It seems like these four have alibis then” concluded the folklorist.

“What about you, Ouma-kun, Kiibo-kun, Shinguji-kun?” continued Kaede.

“Kiibo-chan and I share an alibi!” proudly stated Ouma.

“You do?” reacted a doubtful Momota.

“Yeah! I went to see Kiibo-chan around 3PM, but he left before we could have fun!”

“You went to ask me if I had... That thing again, Ouma-kun!” responded embarrassed the robot.

“We're only left with Shinguji-kun and... Saihara-kun” said Kaede.

It was really, really weird to state her best friend in this school lacked an alibi. He couldn't be the culprit, she was sure of it. But proving his innocence would be really hard if he lacked an alibi.

 

“I was in my lab. I invited Chabashira-san for an acupuncture session to let her relax around 2PM. We both left to do our own things afterwards, and I can only suppose the killer tricked her into staying in my lab to kill her there. I may have forgotten to lock the door." told them the folklorist.

“I... I was in my room...” gulped Saihara, his voice getting suddenly shaky.

“What were you doing in your room, if you do not mind me asking, Saihara-kun?” asked Kiibo.

“I was resting...” he quickly replied.

“Saihara-kun...” Kaede heard whisper to herself. “Is something wrong?” she asked.

“Everything's fine, Akamatsu-san, don't worry...” he barely answered.

“Hey, Saihara-chan... Whatcha hiding under your cap?” asked Ouma once again.

“Did you put something stupid in there when you stole it from me this morning?” Saihara asked back.

_“Are ya hiding a needle covered in cyanide in there?”_

 

Everyone went completely silent for a few seconds, focusing on the detective as he tried to hide his face with the bill of his cap even more.

“Saihara-kun... You're hiding someone serious, right? It's no cause of bad bed hair” said Kaede.

“Are y'all suggesting that Shuichi killed Tenko?! That’s complete garbage!!” yelled Momota.

“No...I'm just... Saihara-kun, please, tell us what it is..." continued the pianist.

“Can we see what Saihara-kun could be hiding in his hat?” requested Shinguji.

“Sure, make it quick” replied Monokuma.

 

The folklorist went to the detective's stand, whose only visible eye was fixated on him. He put his bandaged hands on the cap.

“Can I?”

“Yeah” Saihara relunctantly said. The only reason why Kaede knew he didn't consent much to what was going on, was his right hand retaining itself from press the hat on his head.

Shinguji carefully took out the cap from the detective's head. However, a wrong hand move leaded to a silent uproar in the room.

A clinging sound.

 

Kaede swore she could have seen a small something hang from the very back of the cap. But she was far, far more disturbed by what had fallen to the ground. Shinguji put back the hat on Saihara's head and kneeled down to pick up what had fallen.

“This is a needle. A needle smelling like almond” he said in a calm, undisturbed voice.

Gonta sniffed the air, clearly unsure.

“This is what Saihara-kun asked Gonta to smell earlier today...”

 

Shinguji calmly regained his spot as Saihara started to get cold sweats.

“I... I swear I didn't have it on me! I don't know where it comes from!”

The bill of his hat wasn't hiding much anymore. His eyes were painfully visible, dark rings underlining them. Now she knew what he was hiding, and maybe, maybe it was better than a needle he didn't know about.

It was fatigue.

 

Saihara stepped back in his stand, gritted his teeth and retained the urge to scream before... Trying to get rid of something? She couldn't tell what he was trying to do.

“Oi, Shuichi... The fuck you're doing?” asked Momota, confused.

“I-it's nothing...” he replied, failing to convince anyone around.

“So... Where were we?” interrupted Shinguji.

“Saihara had the needle on him” responded Harukawa.

“Saihara-chan, you really failed to pull out a fake suicide!” giggled Ouma.

“"I didn't do it...!”

“Really?” insisted the dictator.

“Shuichi wouldn't kill a fly!” screamed the astronaut.

 

Monokuma triggered the apparition of a now-familiar device and took out a key that he inserted in there. Scrum Debate was about to start. Question: “Is Shuichi Saihara the killer?”. The group of eight was cut-clear between the “Saihara is the culprit” and “Saihara isn't the culprit” sides. While most of both sides were obvious, a surprise awaited everyone.

“Shuichi, why the fuck are you condemning yourself?!” reacted Momota, disbelief on his face.

“W-what...?”

“Hey, start the debate you maggots!!” yelled their “dear” headmaster.

 

“That makes no sense! Shuichi can't be the culprit, he's too confused to have done it!” yelled Momota.

“Saihara-chan had the needle on him, the very weapon of the murder!” responded Ouma.

“If Saihara had done it, he would have made something better than a half-assed fake suicide” replied Harukawa.

“W-what are we discussing...?”

“Saihara-kun does not look like he is doing too well... I do not think he did it” said Kiibo.

“But Saihara-kun lacks an alibi” said back Shinguji.

“You lack one too, Shinguji-kun!” replied Kaede.

“Saihara-chan has been strangely quieeeeeeeeet!” insisted the dictator.

“Saihara-kun doesn't look well, and why would he give away his own killing methods?!” achieved the pianist.

 

The “not the killer” side barely won, with a limit to it: Shinguji was suspicious too, but Saihara didn't make his credibility better. He was just the ideal suspect. More ideal than the one the lab belonged too.

“Do you have anything to defend yourself, Saihara-kun? I'm still not convinced that you're innocent” asked Shinguji.

“I was investigating the corpse with Akamatsu... I hadn't seen it before...” the detective replied.

“Saihara-kun... You're alright?” asked the pianist, looking at his shaking legs.

“Yes, yes I'm fine Akamatsu!!” he snapped at her, surprising everyone in the room. “I'm innocent, please, don't vote me off...”

 

His voice sounded so unsure and so pleading. He looked like he was about to break out under something. Maybe it was in tears, maybe it was snapping at everyone in a storm of rage. She didn't know, but she was getting severely worried, and not only because he was about to be voted off as the culprit of a crime he couldn't have committed.

“There must be a flaw in Shinguji-kun's reasoning!” she thought.

“I think guilt is taking its toll on Saihara-chan! Let's vote before he cries like a kid!” giggled Ouma.

“N-no, that's wrong...! That's wrong...! That's... Wro...” the detective's voice was getting quieter and quieter, weaker and weaker with words passing.

He took support on the stand and stood up again.

“That's wrong...! Your alibi isn't valid...! Your speech is... Incoherent... Shinguji-kun...”

 

His eyes closed down and he passed out right on the spot, his limp body barely staying in its stand as everyone just watched in silence.

 


	3. Trap Closing In

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TFW you not alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this was the incriminated part. You may notice I removed one... Absolute bit of stupidity out of it. 
> 
> On a more positive note, I know pyrogen isn't an actual poison as cyanide is. But it's DR so I allow myself to have a little fun hehehe

Time had stopped inside the trial court. Everyone was speechless, interrupted in the flow of the debates by such, such an unexpected turn of events.

 

“Sa... Sa...” Kaede muttered, voiceless. It was as if her voice had left her throat until she heard herself scream his name in anguish.

“Saihara!!” she yelled, yelled and yelled again, but as soon as she tried to rush to his side, Monokuma blocked her way.

 

“Whatcha doing, Akamatsu?”

“I'm checking up on him! He just passed out!!” she responded, tears in her eyes.

“I'm afraid there is a class trial going on, and that you'll have to wait until that's done!” the bear replied.

“Shinguji went to see his hat, why it's different now?!”

“Because it had a point with the investigation! Ya don’t!”

 

Momota's eyes looked on his side, and before anyone could speak up, he took the floor.

“Kaede... There's something weird with Shuichi. Something fell from him again...”

“Something, as in?”

“I dunno, it made a cling sound!”

She glared at Monokuma whose look slightly changed.

“Whatever, go for it. It better be linked to the investigation, or either I'll punish ya!!”

 

She rushed to Saihara and kneeled before him, catching his body which had fallen once the stand opened. With his head on her laps, she felt something she hadn't felt when they were next to each other earlier... A hand on his face confirmed what.

“Saihara-kun's burning up!! When did that happen?!”

Everybody turned towards her.

“Saihara-kun has a fever?” asked Kiibo.

“That's weird, he didn't feel warm at all before!” reacted Momota.

 

Her feet, then her eyes came across something suspicious. A needle.

“Another of those?” reacted Harukawa.

Kaede carefully picked it up.

“It smells like almond too...” she said.

 

Gonta sniffed again.

“It smells like almond... But Gonta smells a sweeter scent than before!”

"A sweeter scent? How can this be?" asked Kiibo.

“Well... It's just a sweeter almond scent, no big deal” reacted Ouma.

“It's actually a big deal” broke Kaede.

"How's that?"

"Because it means Saihara-kun somehow had _two_ needles on him, and not soaked in the same liquid!" explained the pianist.

Everybody remained speechless, while Shinguji seemed to get cold sweat.

 

“Saihara-kun was right when he said he didn't have the needle on him. Because he didn't have two of these. He only had the sweeter one.”

“How do you know this?!” asked Shinguji.

“Because there is tape on the back of his cap!!”

“Tape?!” screamed Ouma.

“Someone... Pretended the cyanide needle was inside Saihara-kun's cap.”

 

Everybody seemed shaken.

“The culprit... Tried to frame Shuichi!!” yelled Momota, beyond offended.

Glares turned towards Shinguji.

“You're the only one who lacks an alibi, Shinguji-kun!” pointed out Kiibo.

“I am completely innocent, and I can explain why” was his answer.

 

/I didn't have any reason to kill Chabashira-san./

/Moreover, it seems too easy to accuse the one whose lab is the murder location./

/Don't you think it would be a little too obvious?/

**“You invited Chabashira-san to your lab, and she wound up dead there in a time you don't have a solid alibi for!”**

 

/Saihara-kun had the needle on him since the beginning./

_“Why are you still accusing someone unconscious you fucker...” she could hear Momota mumble._

/To me, it is obvious this was the murder weapon./

/He simply hid it instead of disposing of it./

**“I will cut through these words!!”**

 

Kaede slapped her hands on the stand as she made her argument.

“Saihara-kun didn't have the needle with the cyanide on him. If he had used the tape to secure it while not risking to be poisoned himself, we would have found traces of cyanide on the tape and traces of tape on the needle. There was none of these.”

She paused.

“However... He had another needle in there, one that has tape traces on it. It's the one who wasn't dumped in cyanide.”

“Then, what is this second needle covered in?” asked Kiibo.

“I don't know yet...” replied the pianist.

“A pyrogen.”

 

Harukawa's words shook things considerably.

“What's a pyrogen, Harumaki?” asked Momota.

“A substance which gives the victim a fever.”

A realization struck Kaede like a truck. Of course, a pyrogen. Everything wound up in her head at the speed of light.

“I... I think I've got everything.”

 

“We still didn't prove I was more of a culprit than Saihara-kun was!” snapped Shinguji.

“Believe me, I have everything to show you're the culprit, Shinguji-kun.”

 

Kaede crossed her arms as she rewound everything from the beginning.

“If we consider the Monokuma motive being dirty secrets, we can guess Chabashira-san had the culprit's one with her. The culprit got to know about it because Monokuma went out of his way to tell everyone who had their secret.”

“It was funnier that way!”

“Shut up you fucking bear!!” yelled Momota.

 

“The culprit wanted to get rid of this dirty secret, so they invited Chabashira-san for relaxation at Shinguji's lab, who had the materials to do accunpuncture. But before this, they had to think about someone to frame for the poisoned needle.”

“And so they picked Shuichi... But why?”

“This morning, Saihara-kun didn't come to the cafeteria, making him suspicious by default. At one point, Ouma-kun stole his cap and hid it somewhere in the school, which the culprit found and taped the second needle, the one drenched in pyrogen, on the back of it. They then let him get back his cap.”

“But, Akamatsu-san... How did Saihara-kun not notice it?” asked Kiibo.

“Saihara-kun showed signs of fatigue before he passed out during the trial. Exhausted, he didn't pay much attention to it and simply put it back on as the culprit invited Chabashira-san for a relaxing afternoon at Shinguji-kun's lab, who had everything needed: needles for accupuncture, more neutral needles, cyanide and the pyrogen used on Saihara-kun.”

 

Shinguji showed slight panic.

“The culprit then pierced Chabashira-san's neck with the needle drenched in cyanide while pretending to give her acupuncture, killing her on the spot from suffocation. They then proceeded to grab a rope, knot it around her head and suspend her corpse from the staircase, faking the murder into a suicide by hanging. They however forgot to include a platform the victim could have stood on to hang herself.”

 

She continued, eyeing Saihara who was barely sitting in his closed stand.

“Gonta-kun discovered the body and went to warn Momota-kun, Harukawa-san and me about it. The body discovery announcement rang, and we joined by our other classmates, including the culprit who had left the door to the lab wide open. But things don't stop there.”

“Then we investigated and we went here, no? That's it, no?” asked Ouma.

“Far from it.”

 

Kaede took a deep breath. Her blood was boiling in her veins, enraged by what she was about to tell her fellow friends about.

“Remember the second needle that the culprit taped onto Saihara-kun's hat? It was meant to be a decoy if the culprit wouldn't be the one to check his hat. However, the culprit was the one to do so, and all they had to do was drop the first needle they had on them on the ground at the same time they were taking off the hat. They hadn't foreseen that the pyrogen needle would actually fall off and pierce Saihara-kun's skin, effectively giving him an unwanted fever as he was the prime suspect until he passed out. And there is only one person here who could have done it...”

 

She pointed an accusing finger at the new main suspect.

“Korekiyo Shinguji, you are the killer of Tenko Chabashira-san and the one who poisoned Shuichi Saihara-kun!!”

 

Everyone stared at the Ultimate Folklorist, who was quiet. The heavy silence in the room was poisoning the air.

“That's it? You found the killer? Then it's time for the vote!!” said in a cheerful voice Monokuma as he pulled the lever to show the voting panels in front of the students.

 

Without an inch of hesitation, Kaede voted for Shinguji, who she felt a deep hatred for all of a sudden. Usually, she would sympathized with the murderer on the behalf of motives, of mental torture, of a will to ease someone's suffer in here.

But there? Chabashira was someone trustworthy. And he killed her.

But here? He tried to frame Saihara, who was completely innocent, and used the detective's weakened state and exhaustion to pull it off.

 

A familiar, neon roulette showed on the screen, showed the goddamn murderer's face with "GUILTY" written over his head. They had guessed once again.

If Saihara hadn't passed out, who knew what would have happened.

 

“You... You're a horrible person” she heard herself tell the killer. This wasn't usual of her.

"Akamatsu-san?" got worried Kiibo.

“You killed someone who wouldn't have revealed your fucking secret... And tried to frame it on Saihara!! You... You realize he may be dying too right now?! You realize you may pull off a double murder because of a stupid secret?!” she screamed.

 

She was breaking down, tears flowing down her cheeks.

“You killed Chabashira-san and you're killing Saihara-kun for a stupid Monokuma motive!! You don't know better?! Answer me!!”

 

She broke into sobs.

“Execute him before I do it myself...”

 

Monokuma, despite being a little startled, did his usual trial end routine.

“It’s time for the moment you've all been expecting! A thrilling, heart-pounding execution! **Iiiiiit's punishment tiiiiiiiiime!!** ”

On the screen, a pixelated Monokuma was dragging a pixelated Shinguji while a pixelated version of herself clutched the barrier. She looked away, not even interested in seeing how he was going to die. Instead, she quietly walked down from her stand and went to Saihara's stand.

 

She kneeled down to him and gently placed his head on her laps, now that he had fallen from his stand once again. A hand on his forehead, she could tell his body temperature was reaching dangerous heights. The needle which had poisoned him was still on the ground, smelling like almond, the new bane of her life.

 

A few tears landed on his face as she clutched onto him, silently weeping as the execution gathered everyone else's attention. Everyone, except for a familiar someone, who had put a hand on her shoulder.

“Momota-kun...?”

“Look at his voting panel, Kaede”

 

She took a glance at the voting panel in front of the stand, and was surprised to see it had actually counted, before looking back at the astronaut.

“You... Voted for Saihara-kun...  Momota-kun...?”

“Yeah... I didn't want to see Shuichi die cuz he couldn't vote ya know!”

“Thank you so much, Momota-kun...”

“Ya welcome! Now, I wish this execution would just end so we can bring him to a place where we can actually try to patch him up...”


	4. Boy's Life of Anxiety

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I could make a sitcom out of these four I swear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't meaning to post this chapter until tomorrow, but to make up for my swings, I decided I would post it anyway  
> Huh, maybe I'm better at fluff

Momota had the still-unconscious Saihara in his arms as he, Kaede and Harukawa were leaving the court room. Everyone else still seemed shaken by the execution, but the three of them seemed, strangely, rather unfazed.

Sure, such a grotesque death was horrible, and he hadn't deserved to die in the hands of a psychopathic bear. But the fact he had killed someone inoffensive (if Chabashira wasn't pissed off) and had poisoned someone else... That was unforgivable either.

 

“So... How do we heal him? Shuichi ain't gonna last very long with such a fever!” said Momota, worried to the point of having lost a shade.

“We bring him to the infirmary, then we see” replied Harukawa.

 

The road to the nurse's office was painfully silent. Momota was walking with a seriously preoccupied expression on his usually peaceful face. Harukawa was looking at the road, sometimes at the two boys. It was weird to see her worried for anyone. As to Kaede herself, she was mostly looking at Saihara, whose breathing wasn't slowing down and whose face continuously sweated, completely flushed. The red of his cheeks was conflicting the paleness of the rest of his face and his dark rings.

What a sad, sad show.

 

“I didn't think the pyrogen was so effective. Saihara looks like he'll suffer irreversible damage if it doesn't go down by tomorrow” stated Harukawa, whose apparently calm probably hid other feelings altogether.

“Is... Is there a way to cure that...?” asked the pianist, on the verge of crying in worry.

“I'm sure there is an antidote in this douchebag's lab” replied Momota.

 

Maki slightly smirked.

“In his lab, you said?”

“Yeah, in his lab, why?”

“I think it's time to pay a little visit to _folklore bitch_ 's lab”

The nickname slightly embarrassed Kaede, who had spewed it out of rage.

 

“You're really going to break in there?” asked the pianist.

“Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard. I want to get the antidote anyway” responded the girl in red.

“Aww, Harumaki, you're the _best_!!” yelled Momota gaining back some color.

She blushed and looked away.

“S-shut up...”

 

Once at the nurse's office, the astronaut softly put his friend on an empty bed.

“I'm going to get the antidote. See you later.” stated Harukawa as she left.

“Good luck Harumaki!!” cheered the purple-haired boy.

 

Kaede went to get a cloth and a bucket of water as the astronaut seemed... Perplexed.

“What's wrong, Momota-kun?”

“Shouldn't we... Undress him? We may be able to pump some poison out” he replied.

Kaede simply blushed.

“He would feel a bit more comfortable too that way...”

 

She went to the shelves filled with different medicine bottles until she found a venom pumper. Meanwhile, Momota had taken out Saihara's uniform jacket and put on another bed his cap. He seemed even worse without his cap on, but she couldn’t allow her attention to be carried away. She had a friend to take care of.

“Momota-kun, can you put him on his stomach, please? I think the needle pierced his back” she asked.

“Sure thing!”

 

A few seconds later, Kaede was facing Saihara's back, his white button-up shirt partially undone so she could find the strange hole. She tried her hardest to remember where it was on Chabashira's neck to have a picture of how it looked like...

A careful yet awkward look at his skin revealed a strange, mole-like spot surrounded by a small reddish spot. It was where the needle had dug in earlier. She then gently installed the pumping device on the spot and prayed her hardest she could get some poison out before Harukawa came back from the lab.

 

It turned out that most of it had already gone in Saihara's veins by the time they could had accessed the infirmary, but she had still managed to get a decent part of it out of his system.

“I'm sure Harumaki will bring us the antidote, don't worry! You've already helped him so much…” told her Momota upon seeing her disappointed face, a hand on her shoulder.

 

Sure thing, the wolf was back only one or two minutes later, a small bottle of translucent liquid in her hand.

“Here is the antidote. It was written with a sharpie on the bottle, I couldn't get mistaken” she said as she handed Momota the bottle.

“Thank you sooooo much Harumaki!!” he said, a giant grin on his face.

 

Blushing, Harukawa turned her back and went to get a syringe from the shelves, which she then handed to Kaede.

“Akamatsu, inject around... This dose I would say. It should help Saihara to get better” she instructed before going back next to the Momota.

“Thank you so much, Harukawa-san...” she sighed in relief.

“You're welcome.”

 

Kaede then filled with the syringe with what was needed of the antidote, put back the bottle on the small nightstand next to the bed and carefully introduced the needle in the hole.

What had been done and shouldn't had been done would get cancelled, nulled, banished from existence.

 

“I hope this is going to make Saihara-kun get better... He looks awful right now...” She said, slightly less worried than before.

“Same...” quickly added Momota.

“Huh... Harumaki and I will get him something, you know, a glass of water maybe... See ya!”

Her two other friends left her on such a... Questionable explanation, she couldn't help but wonder what it really was about.

 

Kaede decided to watch over Saihara, but before she could just do so, she grabbed a thermometer in the shelves and gently inserted it in his mouth. Some morbid curiosity was pushing her do to it, somehow. It was as if she wanted to know how bad of a toll this mess had taken upon him and his already damaged health.

She was prepared to hear the thermometer beep really fast, but it was so early that she had been caught off guard. A drop of cold sweat pearled down her temple as she took it back into her hand to read the number shown.

The number was absurdly high, reaching the 41 degrees. She was hoping the antidote would work, and work really fast, because she couldn't let that stand. This was unnatural and, dared she say it, inhuman. Shinguji had managed to almost succeed at a second murder, and Kaede was conscious that, if the trial had dragged down for longer, Saihara would had been a dead man with a fried brain.

 

Right as she put the thermometer away, she heard some grunts and stirring, catching her attention onto the bedridden one.

A pair of grey eyes slowly and hardly opened up, fighting the artificial light of the infirmary.

“A... Akamatsu-san...?” His whisper was barely audible.

“You're awake!”

She felt so, so relieved. He was alive. He was conscious.

 

He tried to get up, but after some moaning and a hand to his head, Saihara stayed lying in bed.

“My head... What in...”

“Oh, right, you must be confused...”

His eyes opened wide and he bolted sitting.

“The Class Trial!! Where are we?!”

 

Kaede slowly put him back into a laying position.

“We're at the nurse's office. The Class Trial is over.”

“Over...?” whispered Saihara, as if the sky had fallen on him.

“How... How can't I remember it then...?”

She felt a bit embarrassed. No, she felt really awkward telling him all of a sudden.

“You... You collapsed during the trial...”

 

He gasped as his face showed an intense emotion, if she had to describe it, she would have said panicked astonishment.

“Collapsed?! But... I didn't feel that bad this morning...”

“You still felt exhausted, right? Even now you're rubbing your eyes... You're sure everything's okay, Saihara-kun?”

“I'm a bit tired but so is everybody...”

 

He shivered.

“But why do I feel so much worse now...?”

“You're running a high fever, Saihara-kun...”

She handed him the thermometer. In disbelief, he took it and put it in his mouth.

 

He had to admit to himself as soon as he read "40.7" on the small screen.

“It’s going down quite quickly, but you're still really feverish....”

“I don't recall being that sick this morning though... I had a small fever but that was it...”

Wait, _what_?! Oh, she would ask about this later.

 

“It's because you weren't before the trial...” she said instead.

“What do you mean, Akamatsu-san...?”

He was rubbing his arms to try and get over his chills.

“You... You've been... Poisoned.”

 

His jaw dropped.

“What?! Poisoned? But... How? When..? With what...?”

“Shinguji hid a needle covered in poison in your cap... And during the trial, a little bit after he ‘found’ the murder weapon in it, the needle fell off and injected its poison in your back...”

 

His face managed to show even more and more surprise.

“He... Tried to poison me... But why...?”

“To frame you for murder. It was a decoy if he hadn't been able to search your hat himself. But he didn't foresee that you could actually get poisoned, that bustard...”

She gulped.

 

“You've been poisoned with a pyrogen, Saihara-kun... And without Harukawa-san and Momota-kun, you would be dead by now...”

“That's why I got that feverish... And that I felt so dizzy during the later parts of the trial...”

“It sounds like you didn't feel very good before either.”

 

Saihara looked away, almost hiding his face behind his laps he had retracted on him.

“You noticed...?”

“You mentioned you were running a small fever earlier, but I noticed you weren't doing so well even before that. You weren't even finishing your sentences during the trial!”

 

Kaede's face softened as she wiped the sweat on his face with the washcloth on his forehead she had dipped in water again.

“You were wearing your cap again to hide your exhaustion, didn't you? You do look completely exhausted, physically and mentally...”

“Y-yeah... I just didn’t want to worry people, we're all exhausted of this crap... So I didn't want to add more on the others’ minds...” the detective replied, yawning between loud breaths.

“Saihara-kun... This is really kind of you and all, but you shouldn't do it all on your own... You have Momota-kun, Harukawa-san, Kiibo-kun, and all the others... Well maybe not this folklore creep considering he tried to frame and almost killed you, but we're all here for you, you know? Let's show Monokuma we're a team, okay?”

 

A small smile appeared on his face, despite his clear dizziness.

“Thank you, Akamatsu-san...”

“Oh, you need to thank Momota-kun and Harukawa-san later too! We all did something to save you once you were out of commission!”

“You all did...?”

He looked moved. She remembered what he had told her when they spoke together before the first murder, “ _nobody had ever talked to me like this..._ ” when she had told him she believed in him and that he was better than he thought he was…

 

“Yeah! Momota-kun voted for you when you were down so you wouldn't get executed. Harukawa-san went to get the antidote for the pyrogen. And I leaded the trial for you, because I think I got what you were thinking... So, thank you, Saihara-kun. I couldn't have done it without your conclusions during the investigation.”

He nodded his head in a no and, with some tears appearing in his eyes, looked at the pianist.

“No... Thank you all... I wasn't able to finish what I had started, and you did it for me, and saved me from poisoning... I... I'm really thankful...”

 

Kaede, for a reason she ignored, hugged her comrade of misfortune. Maybe it was to comfort him, since he looked like he was about to cry. Maybe it was to hide the fact she was starting to get seriously emotional over it. They were probably both crying by now; she just didn't have a headache and a fever to prevent her from hiding it.

“Shh... The most important is that you're safe and sound, Saihara-kun... It's all that matters... We're safe and alive...”

 

His skin was burning under her arms, but she didn't care about the discomfort provided by it on her.

“Just... Please just don't hide your problems from us if we can do something about it... We could have lifted a weight from your shoulders...”

His grip got stronger as she felt some tears on her shoulder.

 

“I... I'm so tired of this bullshit... Why are we killing each other...? Why are we here...? Is anybody having a laugh at us, locking us under a dome with a stuffed bear...? I... I just want things to go all right for once...”

He had hiccups caused by his sobs. She was just rubbing his back, once again despite the hotness radiating from his body.

 

“I feel your pain, I really do, Saihara-kun... But we can't dwell on this, we can only move on and try to break the actual masterminds’ pedestal...”

His fever was making him strangely honest. He never lied, but he would hide his deeper thoughts usually. Seeing him break down was... Really sad.

“I... I'm supposed to be a detective, to be used to that... But I'm just too weak, I can't... I don't get used to see our classmates die...!”

“Nobody is getting used to it... Stop being so hard on yourself...”

 

He pulled apart softly from her embrace, looking at her with slightly swollen eyes.

“I... I'll try to move on, honour them and solve this mystery... For everybody’s sake!”

Kaede softly giggled.

“That's the spirit... But for now, you have to rest and sleep off this fever...”

She wasn't very surprised when Saihara softly fell in her arms, his breathing calming down.

 

“Heh... Goodnight, Saihara-kun.”

As soon as she said that, two familiar faces entered the room again, and one of them expressed himself loudly.

“Oi... Why are ya huggin’ Shuichi, Kaede?”

 

 


End file.
